Bloody Secret
by Cara-Julia
Summary: "Jane? You still there?" No answer. Suddenly, she heard the hectic noises of blaring horns and squeaking tires. "Are you alright! What's going on?" Lisbon couldn't hide the concern from her voice. "Lisbon, I'm-" he started between heavy breaths. The beeping noise told her they'd been disconnected.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is an idea that came to mind and I had to write down! I am well aware that I'm writing another fiction at the moment as well and I will update that one soon, I promise.

Now, have fun reading!

Lisbon was sitting at her desk in her office and tried to look like she was doing something important. The truth was that they didn't have a case in over a week and all the paperwork was already done. She was grateful for the humming noise her phone made when someone called. It meant distraction. Maybe even a case? Where was her phone, though? She quickly tried to locate the sound and eventually found it a second too late in her jacket pocket. The caller, which her phone identified as Patrick Jane, had already hung up.

At first, she'd been a little disappointed by the caller being who he was since it meant that they wouldn't have a new case. At least not as long as Jane hadn't decided to pay a visit to Bertram, who told him to inform Lisbon about a new case. That was indeed very unlikely…

"Lisbon," Jane said and brought her back to reality. She had called him back, right.

"What is it, Jane?" she asked.

"What are you doing right now?" he wanted to know and made Lisbon sit up in her chair.

Lisbon hesitated a moment, considering whether she should try and lie to him or just tell him she was totally bored and had nothing to do.

"I'm in the office, why?" she answered evasively, "Where are you? You're late,"

"I was just driving around the city when I found an amazing bookstore. You'd really like it here, they have a lot of books you'd love," he stated beamingly.

"This is why you're calling, Jane? A bookstore?" she asked amusedly, "Besides, how do you know there're books I'd like?" The moment she asked that question she felt foolish. Of course, he knew it. He was Patrick Jane.

He must have thought the same because he just went on, "You should really come by, Lisbon. Even though you're busy pretending you're busy," Lisbon rolled her eyes. How did he..? Patrick Jane, right.

"It's really worth it, I promise," he went on, "You should read more often, it's good for your body and soul,"

Lisbon snorted, "How's sitting back with a book good for my body?"

"Well," he started and she heard the noises around him change. There now were sounds of traffic and voices talking, "It relaxes you, Lisbon. Something you could really use," he mocked lightly.

"Ha Ha. I'm at work, Jane. I can't just wander off in comparison to you. Actually, you can't just wander off yourself," Lisbon replied.

No answer.

"Jane? You still there?"

No answer.

Suddenly, she heard the hectic noises of blaring horns and squeaking tires, "Jane?!" she called urgently into her phone. What was happening?

There were a few moments of complete silence before she heard his heavy breathing.

"Are you alright? What's going on?" Lisbon couldn't completely hide the concern from her voice.

"It's okay, Lisbon," he said with effort between his breaths.

"Jane-" The beeping noise told her they'd been disconnected.

Every time she tried to call him back, his phone went straight to voicemail.

 _Probably he just forgot to charge his phone_ , she tried to calm herself, _He sounded okay. Maybe he went on the street without looking and a car had to brake sharply and he just became frightened, that's probably it._

"Dammit," she knew she was deceiving herself. Something was not right. Possibly, something was very wrong and he needed her help. He trusted her. But there were a lot of other people who could help him as well.

She stepped out of her office and made her way towards the bullpen, where Van Pelt, Cho and Rigsby were busy throwing office supplies at each other amicably. When Lisbon entered, they immediately sat up and tried to look busy. Normally, Lisbon would've dropped a comment but the concern was choking her voice.

"Van Pelt," she said, "Could you trace Jane's phone?"

"What's he into now?" Rigsby asked playfully.

"I don't know but I think he's in trouble," Lisbon said quietly, what empathised the seriousness of the situation even more.

Lisbon told her about the phone call she had with Jane earlier and that he didn't answer anymore. After she finished, no one was laughing anymore.

"I can't trace it, Boss," Van Pelt spoke up, "Either it's turned off or he ran out of battery,"

Lisbon swallowed. This was not a good sign. "Thanks," she said before she returned to her office. She was rapt in thought when a phone rang. Her head snapped up and she hoped it was Jane, telling her that everything was just a misunderstanding. But it wasn't Jane. They had a case.

The information provided wasn't very detailed but they still let Lisbon's heart skip a beat; Caucasian male, blonde, in his mid to end thirties, hit and killed by a car. Accidentally or intentionally was for them to find out.

 _This couldn't be happening_ , was all she was thinking. _It's probably nothing_ , she tried to calm her racing thoughts to no avail.

The team reacted with tense calm, probably thinking about the same thing like their boss.

The way to the crime scene was like a torture, even though they just drove about fifteen minutes to the city centre. Lisbon thought, that day couldn't get any worse, when she saw the distant letters of a bookstore sign. This couldn't be happening.

She jumped out of the car and didn't take the time to listen to the officer of the SacPD, who tried to familiarise her with the situation. She hastily went around the last corner that separated her from the sight of a lifeless figure with blonde hair and a blue suit that was laying in the middle of the street.

A/N: Thank you for reading the first chapter and sorry for the cliffhanger! Reviews are always greatly appreciated and might as well motivate me to update sooner ;-)

Have a nice day everyone!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This chapter is very short and I'm sorry about that! Next one's gonna be longer, I promise. And it'll answer some more questions as well. I hope you enjoy reading this one,

See you x

Lisbon froze in her movement when she saw the scene that presented itself in front of her. This couldn't be happening.

Cho and Rigsby passed her by, heading for the crime scene.

Lisbon felt numb. She barely recognised Van Pelt standing next to her putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Could that really be her consultant who was laying there, between all the little evidence signs, with pathologists and police swarming around him? What had happened?

Lisbon felt a cold shiver run down her spine. What if it was him? He'd never again make her laugh. She'd never again be able to talk to him. He would never again mock her. He would never again make her enjoy her work. Lisbon had always loved her work. She'd never thought about quitting for a second. But if Jane wasn't there anymore, she doubted she could walk into the office every morning seeing he wasn't there anymore. Maybe, she had to look for a new job in a different city. No, she immediately rejected that thought, she couldn't go. If she did, it felt like betraying him. She didn't expect it to hurt so bad if he finally…

"It's not him," Cho had turned around towards Lisbon, who stood about thirty feet away. But the words didn't filter down to her. She was caught up in her thoughts too deeply.

"Boss?" Van Pelt slightly shook Lisbon's shoulder.

Eventually, she looked at her agent, "It's not him, boss," she said empathetically, "This is not Jane," she repeated when Lisbon didn't seem to understand what she was telling her.

She had been so sure it was him that the sense of the words needed a moment to be processed by her mind. She finally forced herself to take a proper look at the body.

His hair was straight, not curly like Jane's. And there was no vest but only a tie. She took a couple shaky steps towards the corpse. His limbs stood out at crooked angles and there was blood running down the right side of his face. The man's face, not Jane's face.

She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself.

"Boss," Cho appeared next to her, "I found Jane's phone on the side of the street, the battery's been taken out,"

Lisbon looked at what Cho was holding in his hand. Her mind confirmed that it was indeed Jane's phone.

"Maybe he's just lost it," Lisbon supposed, even though she almost certainly knew he didn't. _Why would he take the battery out? That's absurd._

"What happened to you, Jane?" she whispered to herself hoping he was okay, wherever he was.

"Any eye witnesses?" she asked after a few moments when she'd finally managed to be a professional again.

"Over there," Cho looked over to a few people standing behind the barrier, "Rigsby's just questioning them,"

"Thanks, Cho," she said and he responded with a silent nod.

Lisbon went over to join Rigsby who turned towards her when he saw her coming.

"Our victim's Jonah Lancaster, 37, hit by a car. Time of death is about one and a half hours ago. We better make this quick, the road is pretty busy-"

"It will take as long as it will take, someone's lost his life here. There're plenty other roads people can use," Lisbon snapped unintentionally. She couldn't hide her concern.

"Yes, sure. Sorry, boss," Rigsby started surprised by his boss' sudden meltdown, "It seems like the car that hit our guy was going too fast like he was speeding on purpose to make sure the impact would cause an instant and certain death. Definitely murder." Rigsby continued.

"What else do we got?" Lisbon asked impatiently.

"We've got a description of the car that killed the man," he said and then went on with a lower voice, "I asked the eyewitnesses about Jane and they all saw him, they said he was hit by the car as well," he said.

Lisbon's worry increased, "Where is he? Is he okay? Is he in a hospital?"

"They say Jane wasn't hurt that badly and that another driver stopped and offered to take him to a hospital," Rigsby said while looking down on his little notepad to echo the accurate information.

"Do they know which one he was taken to?" Lisbon asked.

"No, I-"

"Does any of the hospitals have him there?" she interrupted him.

"I'll check that,"

 _Only one more left_ , Rigsby knew the chances were slim that he was in the last hospital he could call. Alarmingly, all the others hadn't admitted a certain Patrick Jane. All his hope was the last number he'd call. The last hospital he could be in.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ma'am, this is Agent Wayne Rigsby with the California Bureau of Investigation," he introduced himself as a woman answered the phone at his last to-call hospital.

"Oh, how may I help you?" she asked somewhat startled.

"We're looking for a person called Patrick Jane. Did you happen to admit a patient with that name in the past hours?" he asked professionally.

While the woman told him he should hang on and she started to look into the hospital database, Rigsby met the worried gaze of his boss. How would she take the news if Jane wasn't in this hospital? Where else could he be? What could've happened? He had to be there, there weren't many other things that likely could've happened.

"I'm sorry, we don't have any patients going by that name," the shy voice at the other side of the line told him. She didn't know she'd just killed the last bit of hope in Rigsby's search.

He thanked her and gave her his number, like all the other hospitals as well, in case Jane would appear at some point.

Why wasn't he in the hospital? _Maybe,_ Rigsby then thought, _they're stuck in traffic and haven't yet reached the hospital._ He quickly checked the traffic reports and hoped for a major jam somewhere but there was none. Nothing.

"He isn't there, is he?" Lisbon appeared next to him.

"No, he isn't. Sorry, boss," Rigsby said, "I just looked at the traffic reports because I thought that maybe they're stuck in traffic-"

"The next hospital isn't far from here, Wayne. There's no way they could've been stuck in traffic for almost two hours," she stated. It was never a good sign when she used his first name.

"Go talk to the eyewitnesses once more, maybe they can give you a description of the driver who took Jane or know where they were headed," she ordered.

A new wave of worry and fear started to well up in her chest, making it hard to stay calm and think rationally.

 _What has happened here?_

"Get out," the man in the driver's seat demanded after he'd stopped on the side of the road.

Jane opened his eyes and tried to focus through the sharp pain in his leg and ribcage. He needed a moment to remember that he was laying on the backseat of the man's car who wanted to take him to a hospital.

"C'mon," the man said impatiently, got out of the car and opened the door by Jane's head.

"Are we at a hospital?" Jane asked while staring up at the man's face.

He just snorted and a cruel smile played on his lips, which Jane classified as rather disquieting. Even through the fog, the pain caused in his brain he could see that the initially very kind and helpful man seemed to have changed his opinion about helping him.

He confirmed Jane's suspicion by shaking his head, "No, we're not. Now, get out,"

Jane looked at him in incomprehension, "Please, you can't just throw me out, I-"

"Get out of the car or I'll get you out, your choice. Just do it quick," he interrupted him sharply.

Jane tried to sit up a little but the pain in his ribs caused him to freeze in his movement and close his eyes. He tried to calm his breath and get the pain under control, to no avail.

"What is this about?" he asked breathlessly.

Without rewarding him with an answer, the man grabbed Jane's collar and started to pull him out of the vehicle.

"No, please, stop!" Jane cried out in pain but the man continued pulling. Eventually, Jane tried to steady himself by getting his legs on the ground but that action just made him wince in pain. He tried to shield his eyes from the sudden sun burning down on him with his arms.

The man let go of Jane's collar and he fell unprotected to the sandy ground, black dots dancing in his vision. He was hearing was a beeping what he supposed was probably not real. It blocked out any other noises, so he was surprised and confused when he finally took look around and saw the man and his car gone. He realised that he was laying on a sandy path, little pebbles digging into his skin. Around the path were trees and bushes.

He tried to evaluate his injuries in order to know his options.

 _Okay,_ he thought, _probably a few broken ribs. They don't seem like they've pictured my lung, though, since there's no blood and I don't have trouble to breathe. And my legs?_

He tried to move his right leg and cursed when a jolt of pain shook his body. _Broken, most possibly._ He couldn't even determine where exactly the pain was located. It felt like the whole leg was on fire.

 _What about the other one?_ It seemed to be better, at least he could move it, but it still hurt and he was unsure whether it would support his whole weight since his other leg was of no use if he tried to walk.

He was still breathing heavily and tried to push himself up from the ground. It turned out that his head hadn't expected the sudden movement and his world started to spin.

 _Did I hit my head?_ He couldn't remember anything about a blow to the head. He brought his hand to his head to feel whether there was any blood resulting from head wounds, but there was none.

He laid back down and took a moment to calm his breathing.

"The eyewitnesses were able to give us descriptions of the driver who took Jane with him," Cho updated the team, "I ran the facial composite through the database and it scored a hit. Christian Ahlberg, 34, has got criminal record for shoplifting and fraud,"

"Let's bring him in," Lisbon said determinedly, "Anything from the lab?"

"Nothing yet, boss," Van Pelt said.

"Okay, keep digging," she said and sighed. Where in the world was her consultant?


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I'm sorry I needed so long to update! Won't happen again, I promise! Hope you like it. Reviews of all kinds are always greatly appreciated:-)

Bloody Secret, Chapter

Jane didn't exactly know how long he'd been laying on the warm path until it started to rain. When the cool drops started to connect with his warm skin, he realised how thirsty he was. He wanted to turn his head and try to catch some drops with his tongue but a dizzy and slightly nauseous feeling told him not to. He knew that he needed to get help.

He looked around once more. Where in the world was he? How long had they been driving? Why was he so dizzy?

At that moment, when he was laying on that sandy path in the rain, he realised that no one would ever find him if he just stayed where he was. He needed to find someone who could call for help. He patted his pockets to look for his cell phone, wondering why he hadn't thought of using it before. When there was no phone in his pockets, he remembered that he had already checked on it and realised it'd been gone earlier. God, what was wrong with his head?

Where was his phone, then? Why didn't he have it? Did he lose it? Did the man take it from him? He just couldn't remember.

Jane tried to forcefully push himself into a sitting position. To his surprise, it worked, even though his whole body was protesting and his stomach threatened to empty itself.

Not far from him, he saw a blurry, rather solid looking tree. It was that kind that looked like you could pull yourself up on its branches.

He tried to crawl toward it on his hands and knee, one leg just being dragged along painfully. At the time he reached it, the world had gotten dangerously blurry and shaky.

He leaned his back against the trunk of the tree and decided that he needed a little break, sweat of pain and exhaustion glistening on his forehead.

He needed to get his thoughts and memories in order. What did he remember? There had been a bookstore. He'd been there with Lisbon. No, that wasn't quite right. She hadn't been there with him, although he had the faint memory of talking to her. He'd called her, yes, that's it. Did he ever leave the store?

Leaden darkness seemed to cover his memory, so he took a deep breath and forced himself to focus once more.

Did he leave the bookstore? Yes, he'd still been on the phone with Lisbon. Blurry pictures of him crossing the street appeared in his mind but there was more than just crossing the street. There was...someone else. A man. He'd talked to him. What about? Why? Did he know the man? He couldn't remember. He did remember, though, that he turned around, only to see a car coming towards them. Jane had tried to jump out of its way but it'd still hit a part of him and thrown him on the ground with force. His ribs had slammed into the curb, knocking the air out of his lungs. The part of his body that had been really damaged by the car was mainly his leg. Nevertheless, he didn't recall hitting his head. If he imagined an accident similar to his own, it didn't seem that unlikely you'd hit your head. It was a possibility.

He just hoped it was only a concussion and nothing worse and that it would soon get a little better since it didn't really help his situation - to the contrary.

Would Lisbon be looking for him? Probably but it would certainly take her some time to find out where he was. Frankly, he didn't know himself.

When his mind had cleared somewhat, he attempted to get to his feet. It needed him some time but eventually, he was standing on one shaky leg, his hands holding on to the tree's branches tightly. He wasn't sure he could walk. His leg was weak and shaky and the world was spinning painfully. He closed his eyes for a moment and then took an insecure first step, respectively, hop since he only had one leg.

He slowly made his way through all the plants, steadying himself with anything he could get his hands on. He decided it would be best if he would follow the path. The stacks that he would meet someone were a lot higher than if he'd go deeper into the forest and possibly wouldn't be able to go on at some point. If his last strength would leave him here, next to the winding part, maybe someone would find him. Hopefully, he thought. Lisbon had to come, there was no other chance.

He'd just made his way around another curve, every leap an agonising challenge, when he lost the fight against dizziness and stumbled to the ground head-first. Pain flooded his body, although it had become numb. There was too much pain to tolerate and his body had gone into survival mode. Jane tried to catch his breath. Where was he going? Why did he have to go on? He didn

't even have the power to answer these questions. He just somehow knew he had to, that this was important.

He tried to get up from the still-warm ground, the sun slowly setting behind the tree tips. He made it to his hands and knee, before he collapsed back onto the ground again, slipping into welcoming darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hello everyone! Here's another, rather short, chapter. I'm really sorry for not being that active lately but the thing is that I'm currently moving into a new flat, what keeps me pretty busy! So I hope you'll enjoy this one, I'll soon update again (also on Carmine Sorrow) but I can't promise anything.

Julia x

"Mr Ahlberg," Lisbon greeted the man who might have made her consultant disappear when she entered the interview room and sat down right on the opposite side of the table.

"What is this about, Agent Lisbon?" he asked annoyedly.

"This is about where you've been at 10 a.m. today," she responded soberly and opened his file on the table in front of her.

Ahlberg sighed, knowing where this was going, "I was in my car. What about it?"

"We're investigating a murder," she showed him the crime scene photo of the dead man she first thought had been Jane. "Hit and killed by a car. Eyewitnesses told us you were at the scene, helping an injured man in your car. You wanna tell me what that was about?" she asked and showed him a picture of Jane. She could feel anger rising up inside her as he sat there so impassively.

"I offered to drive him to a hospital. So what?" he said blankly.

"He never arrived, he's gone" Lisbon stated quietly.

Ahlberg pinched the bridge of his nose and released a breath, "I know what you must be thinking now. You think I kidnapped that guy or did something to him or whatever but I didn't," he said, "He changed his mind half way, wanted to get out of the car and I let him," he explained.

Lisbon was suspicious. Ahlberg didn't seem like a smart person who would spontaneously make up a different. Lisbon didn't think he was lying. He couldn't be, he wasn't a well enough liar to trick Lisbon into believing him.

"Apart from the fact that you shouldn't have let an injured man, who should be in the hospital, leave your car on some roadside, have you any notion where he could be? Where he wanted to go?" Lisbon tried to cover up her anger about the suspect's lack of consideration as best as she could.

"Lady, I told ya, I didn't know that guy. I don't even know his name," he said irritatedly.

"Patrick Jane. His name's Patrick Jane. And he's injured, you know that somewhere out there, probably in pain, and you are not even trying to help us to find him," Lisbon got furious.

"I'm sorry but I really don't know anything," he put his hands up in surrender and snorted.

Lisbon closed her eyes for a second and tried to compose herself and not punch her fist into her suspect's face.

Jane slowly regained awareness when he heard someone talking to him in the distance. Lisbon? And the team? Had they found him?

The voice got louder and clearer, "Mister? Can you hear me? Are you okay?" he felt someone touching his shoulder.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked straight into the eyes of a woman - who was not Lisbon. He reflexively blinked a couple of times to adjust to the light he had expected but it was dark. "Sir? Are you okay?" the woman asked him empathetically.

Jane cleared his dry throat before he croaked, "Who are you?" He was only partly aware of his current situation.

"My name's Ella, I was driving by when I saw you," she explained worriedly.

Then, it came all back to Jane and groaned, "Would you drive me to a hospital?" He could feel his leg throbbing and his ribs aching.

"To a hospital?" she asked surprisedly, "It's almost midnight.,"

Jane groaned again and took a deep breath against the pain that he became more and more aware of.

"I could take you to my cabin, so you can get a little sleep and tomorrow morning I could drive you down to Sacramento to a hospital," she suggested.

Down to Sacramento? Wasn't he _in_ Sacramento anymore? How long had they been driving? Where was he?

He thought a moment about whether it was smart to get into a car with a stranger for a second time and let her take him into her cabin. He concluded that he didn't really have any other option so he nodded and released a breath he hadn't realised he was holding.

"Can you get up?" Ella asked the man who was laying in the dirt, his eyes closed again.

Could he? He wasn't so sure himself but he would need to try.

With Ella's help, he slowly got on his feet, respectively, his foot and limped to the car.

"Get in the back, you can lay down there," she ordered and Jane had a déjà-vu. It was exactly how it had been with the first driver who wanted to help him.

After a few painful minutes, he half sat, half laid in the back of the woman's jeep. The bumpy road turned the drive into an agonising one for Jane.

"Here we are," the woman eventually said and shut down the engine. Jane was too busy controlling the pain rushing through his body to realise that they had arrived. He only noticed, when the car door was opened and the woman started to carefully help him out of the car.

His leg was shaky and he only made it to the inviting-looking wooden cabin with a lot of effort. Ella brought him into a tiny bedroom, not far from the fireplace. Jane could really use some warmth and, over all, some rest.

 _We need to get into Ahlberg's house,_ Lisbon thought. She still wasn't sure whether to believe the story he'd told her earlier or not. She was sure about one thing, though; He was an asshole. There was something off about him and it was enough for Lisbon to get suspicious and look further into him. But first, there was a team meeting to discuss the progression in the case. Lisbon hoped they had another solid lead.

"One eyewitness could describe the driver of the car that killed Mr Lancaster. I'll let him come in to look at some facial composites we created," Cho announced. Lisbon nodded and looked over to Van Pelt.

"I looked into the cars. Eyewitnesses said the murder weapon was a silver late model SUV with a Californian plate. The man drove away through alleyways, so I guessed that he might be a local. I ran everything and got five hits that look good," she said, happy with her work.

"Go check it out and take Rigby with you," she said.

They immediately made their way to the elevator, so Lisbon guessed, Rigby didn't have anything important to say anymore.

Maybe they'd find something. Her thoughts fell back on Jane. She had asked Ahlberg about his injuries and even though, he didn't really say much, she realised that the damage the car did to him wasn't life threatening, at least not yet, but needed medical attention. Her worry grew when she imagined him being somewhere alone and in pain, possibly locked up, freezing, not knowing what to do next. Lisbon couldn't know he was safely sleeping in a warm bed.


End file.
